1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN"[
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
8 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
9 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
10 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "3.0.11">
12 <!entity p-status "stable">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
18 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
19 <!entity % p-newstuff "INCLUDE"> <!-- exclude stuff from devel versions -->
20 <!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
21 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
24 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
27 This file belongs into
28 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
30 $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.55 2009/02/19 02:20:21 hal9 Exp $
32 Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
35 Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
36 Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
37 http://www.junkbusters.com/
39 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
54 ========================================================================
55 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
58 Please we keep the info in this file as version independent as possible
59 so we only have to maintain one FAQ. Where significant changes are
60 made to Privoxy configuration, please note the change in such a way that
61 it makes sense to both users of older and newer versions.
62 ========================================================================
68 <article id="index" class="faq">
70 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
74 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
75 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
76 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2009 by
77 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
81 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.55 2009/02/19 02:20:21 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
85 Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
86 But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
87 unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
88 statement will be in copyright.smgl.
92 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
94 text goes here ........
104 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
113 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
114 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
115 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
120 This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
121 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
122 It is not a substitute for the
123 <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
125 This works, at least in some situtations:
126 Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
130 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
131 <para>What is Privoxy?</para> &p-intro;
132 <!-- end boilerplate -->
135 Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents
136 the state at the release of version &p-version;.
137 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
138 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
139 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
140 contact the developers.
144 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
152 <sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
153 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="who-uses"><title>Who should give &my-app; a try?</title>
155 Anyone who is interested in security, privacy, or in
156 finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bestchoice"><title>Is Privoxy the best choice for
163 &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
164 control and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation
165 and the ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
168 One of <application>Privoxy's</application>
169 strengths is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
170 completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
171 having an interest in learning about <ulink
172 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP</ulink> and other networking
173 protocols, <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</ulink>, and
174 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
175 Expressions</quote></ulink>
176 will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of &my-app;.
177 A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user
178 should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
179 sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
183 Much of <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration can be done
184 with a <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser">Web browser</ulink>.
185 But there are areas where configuration is done using a
186 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editors">text editor</ulink>
187 to edit configuration files. Also note that the web-based action editor
188 doesn't use authentication and should only be enabled in environments
189 where all clients with access to &my-app; listening port can be trusted.
193 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
194 Privoxy work? </title>
196 A <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">web proxy</ulink>
197 is a service, based on a software such as &my-app;, that clients
198 (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting to web servers directly.
199 The clients then ask the proxy to request objects (web pages, images, movies etc)
200 on their behalf and to forward the data to the clients.
201 It is a <quote>go-between</quote>. For details, see
202 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">Wikipedia's proxy definition</ulink>.
205 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
206 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
207 to accommodate those needs.
210 &my-app; is a proxy that is primarily focused on
211 privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from
212 restrictions placed on his activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
213 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
214 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
215 this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
216 files and options. Being a proxy also makes it easier to share
217 configurations among multiple browsers and/or users.
221 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherstuff">
222 <title>Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?</title>
224 Yes, ad blocking is but one possible use. There are many, many ways &my-app;
225 can be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
229 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of
230 <quote><citetitle>Junkbuster</citetitle></quote>?</title>
232 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
239 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
240 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why change the name from
241 Junkbuster at all?</title>
243 Though outdated, <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
244 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
245 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
246 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
250 There are also potential legal complications from our use of the
251 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
252 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
253 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
254 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
255 share our ideals and goals.
258 The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the original
259 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
260 a name in their own right.
263 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
264 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
265 modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
266 control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
267 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
271 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
272 from the old Junkbuster?</title>
274 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
275 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off.
276 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
278 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
279 helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced,
280 and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
283 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
286 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
292 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
293 <title id="knows">How does Privoxy know what is
294 an ad, and what is not?</title>
296 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
299 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
300 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
301 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
302 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
303 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
304 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
305 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
306 like they would be ads or banners.
309 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
310 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
311 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
312 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
313 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
314 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
317 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
318 and readily configurable.
322 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
323 <title id="mistakes">Can Privoxy make mistakes?
324 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
326 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
327 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
328 run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
329 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
333 But this should not be a big concern since the
334 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
335 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
336 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
337 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
342 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
343 <title id="configornot">Will I have to configure Privoxy
344 before I can use it?</title>
346 That depends on your expectations.
347 The default installation should give you a good starting
348 point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads and unwanted content,
349 but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
350 you to activate them.
353 You do have to set up your browser to use
354 <application>Privoxy</application> (see the <link
355 linkend="firststep">Installation section below</link>).
358 And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
359 or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
360 would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
361 configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
362 encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
363 <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
368 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lan">
369 <title>Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?</title>
371 Yes, &my-app; runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to
372 <quote>serve</quote> more than one client. See <link linkend="lanconfig">
373 How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN</link> below.
377 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
378 Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all?</title>
380 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
381 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
382 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is very
383 versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
384 your browser just can't.
387 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
388 have a LAN with multiple computers since &my-app; can run as a server
389 application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
390 have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
394 Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
395 and <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy enhancing features
396 at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
397 &my-app; offers, it should also be able to do some things more
398 reliable, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
402 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
404 The most important reason is because you have access to
405 <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
406 check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
407 last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
408 there should be some comfort in knowing that <!-- thousands of -->other people can,
409 and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
410 so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
411 <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
412 is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
416 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
417 warranty? Registration?</title>
419 <application>Privoxy</application> is free software and licensed under the <ulink
420 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2</ulink>.
421 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
422 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
423 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
424 that should be included.
427 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
428 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
433 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
434 <title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
436 No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. &my-app; is not designed to be
437 a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
438 filter out any malware.
441 &my-app; could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
442 tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
443 prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
444 up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
445 on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
451 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
452 <title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
454 &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
457 But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
458 ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
459 It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
460 tweak its configuration to your liking.
463 Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
467 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
469 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>Would you like to participate?</title>
471 Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
472 everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
473 testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
474 any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
475 <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
476 the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
477 of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
478 Tracker feedback sections.
481 So first thing, <ulink
482 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
483 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">developers
484 mailing list</ulink>. Then, please read the <ulink
485 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>, at least
486 the pertinent sections.
489 You can also start helping out without SourceForge.net account,
490 simply by showing up on the mailing list, helping out other users,
491 providing general feedback or reporting problems you noticed.
495 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Contribute!</title>
497 We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
498 buying software to test <application>Privoxy</application> with, and, of course,
499 for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
500 like helping us with a donation, just <ulink
501 url="mailto: ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">drop us a note</ulink>
502 and get your name on the list of contributors.
506 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-software"><title>Software</title>
508 If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
509 or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <application>Privoxy</application>
510 runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
511 copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
512 compatibility issues as a result.
522 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
524 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
526 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
527 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
529 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
530 should be virtually all browsers, including
531 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
532 Explorer</application>, <application>Opera</application>, and
533 <application>Safari</application> among others.
534 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
535 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
536 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
541 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
542 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
544 Include supported.sgml here:
549 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
550 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
552 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
553 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
554 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
555 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
556 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
557 with <application>Outlook</application>?</link> below for more on
561 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
562 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
563 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
564 text for these reasons.
568 <!-- Nobody is going to still be doing this!
569 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
570 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
572 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
573 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
574 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
575 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
576 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
577 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
578 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
582 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
583 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
589 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firststep">
590 <title>I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
591 special I have to do now?</title>
594 All browsers should be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
595 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
596 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. It's possible
597 to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
598 even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
599 but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
600 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">the User Manual for more
601 details</ulink>. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk
602 cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored
603 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
609 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
611 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
612 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
613 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
614 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
615 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
616 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you used the <ulink
617 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
618 config option to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
622 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
623 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
624 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
625 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
626 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
627 instead of directly to the Internet.
630 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
631 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
632 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
633 is running, or the equivalent hostname, e.g. <literal>192.168.1.1</literal>.
634 Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
635 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
639 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
640 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
644 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
645 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
646 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
649 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
650 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
651 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
652 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
653 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
654 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
655 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
656 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
657 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
658 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
659 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
660 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
661 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
662 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
663 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
664 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
665 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
666 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
667 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
668 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
669 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
674 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
675 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
676 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
679 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
680 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
681 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
682 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
683 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
684 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
688 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
689 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
690 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
691 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
692 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
693 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
697 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
698 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
699 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
700 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
701 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
702 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
703 In some <application>Firefox</application> versions it's
704 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
705 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
706 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
707 <!-- In my Firefox versions it's the Netscape way. fk 2007-11-19-->
714 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
716 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
717 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
718 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
721 &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
722 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
723 that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
724 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
725 are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
726 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
727 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
728 that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
729 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
730 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
734 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
735 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
736 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
737 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
738 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
739 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
740 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
741 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
742 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
747 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
748 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
749 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
751 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
752 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
753 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
754 Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
755 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
756 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
757 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
762 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
763 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
764 way to do this?</title>
767 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
768 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
769 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
770 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
771 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
772 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
773 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu. Note
774 that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
776 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
781 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
782 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
783 the differences?</title>
786 are being included by the developers, to be used for
787 different purposes: These are
788 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
789 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
790 developers and typically sets the default policies, <filename>user.action</filename>,
791 where users are encouraged to make their private customizations.
792 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
793 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a more
794 detailed explanation.
798 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
799 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
800 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
801 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
806 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
808 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
809 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
810 made available from time to time on the <ulink
811 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
812 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
816 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
817 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
818 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
819 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
824 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
826 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly the
827 same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed.
828 Also each release contains updated, <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is
829 therefore strongly recommended to install the newer configuration files
830 and merge back your modifications.
834 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
835 <title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
837 <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder. Those that are
838 familiar with some of the underlying concepts, such as regular expression
839 syntax, take to it like a fish takes to water. Also, software that tries
840 hard to be <quote>user friendly</quote>, often lacks sophistication and
841 flexibility. There is always that trade-off there between power vs.
842 easy-of-use. Furthermore, anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and
843 implementations to enhance &my-app;.
847 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
849 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
850 It may, however, make all <ulink
851 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
852 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
853 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
854 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
855 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
859 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
861 { -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink> }
862 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
865 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
866 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
867 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
869 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
873 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
875 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
877 mail.google.com</screen>
880 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
881 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
884 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
885 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
886 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
887 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
892 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
893 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
895 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
896 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
897 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
898 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
899 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
900 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
905 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
906 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
907 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
908 you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
909 <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
910 problems. See the <ulink
911 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
912 for a more detailed discussion.
916 It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
917 as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
918 aggressive, and will make use of some of
919 <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
924 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
925 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
927 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
928 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
929 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
932 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
933 itself is writing to the config files. Because
934 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
935 it can update its own config files.
938 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
939 a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want
940 to make sure that the the web-based editor and remote toggle features are
941 <quote>off</quote> by setting <quote><literal><ulink
942 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
943 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
944 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
945 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
948 As of &my-app; 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
953 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
954 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
956 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
957 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
958 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
959 remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can
960 be applied to <emphasis>anything</emphasis> in the page source,
961 header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
962 Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
965 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
966 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
968 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
969 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Content filtering is automatically
970 disabled for inappropriate MIME types, but if you now better than Privoxy
971 what should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
975 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be confused with <ulink
976 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><literal>blocks</literal></ulink>, which
977 is a completely different action, and is more typically used to block ads and
982 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
983 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
984 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
985 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
986 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
987 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
988 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
989 be overwritten during upgrades.
990 The ability to define multiple filter files
991 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
995 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
996 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
997 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
998 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
999 Note that the custom actions editor must be explicitly enabled in
1000 the main config file (see <ulink
1001 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
1005 If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
1007 url="http://www.fabiankeil.de/sourcecode/pft/">Privoxy-Filter-Test</ulink>.
1012 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lanconfig">
1013 <title>How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
1016 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
1017 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
1018 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
1019 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
1021 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
1022 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
1023 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
1024 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
1025 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
1031 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
1035 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
1036 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
1040 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
1041 all available interfaces:
1046 listen-address :8118</screen>
1050 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
1052 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
1053 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
1058 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
1063 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
1064 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
1065 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1072 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1073 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1075 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1076 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1077 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1078 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1079 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1080 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1081 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1082 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1083 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1086 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1087 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1088 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1089 <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
1090 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1095 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1096 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1098 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1099 isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
1100 is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
1101 decent, and it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
1102 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1103 erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
1104 <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
1105 many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
1110 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1111 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced with text
1112 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1114 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1115 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1116 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1117 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1118 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1119 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1122 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1123 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1124 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1127 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1128 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1129 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1130 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1131 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1132 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1137 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1138 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1139 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1142 Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1143 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1144 the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1145 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1148 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1149 See the discussion at <ulink
1150 url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118</ulink>,
1151 for details, and a sample configuration.
1156 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1157 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other
1158 proxies like Squid or Tor?</title>
1160 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1161 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy.
1163 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1164 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1165 describes how to do this, and the <link linkend="TOR">
1166 How do I use Privoxy together with
1167 Tor</link> section below.
1171 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1172 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1173 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1176 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1177 of proxies known as <quote>intercepting</quote> proxies (see below).
1182 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1183 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1184 </quote> proxy?</title>
1186 The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests
1187 and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore
1188 it's not a transparent proxy as described in
1189 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616">RFC 2616</ulink>.
1192 However, some people say <quote>transparent proxy</quote> when they
1193 mean <quote>intercepting proxy</quote>. If you are one of them,
1194 please read the <ulink url="#intercepting">next entry</ulink>.
1199 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="intercepting">
1200 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>intercepting</quote> proxy?</title>
1202 <application>Privoxy</application> can't intercept traffic itself,
1203 but it can handle requests that where intercepted and redirected
1204 with a packet filter (like <application>PF</application> or
1205 <application>iptables</application>), as long as the <literal>Host</literal>
1209 As the <literal>Host</literal> header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most
1210 web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
1213 Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
1214 intercept and redirect traffic into <application>Privoxy</application>.
1215 Afterward you just have to configure <application>Privoxy</application> to
1216 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">accept
1217 intercepted requests</ulink>.
1222 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1223 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?</title>
1225 Versions of <application>Outlook</application> prior to Office 2007, use
1226 <application>Internet Explorer</application> components to both render HTML,
1227 and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however
1228 you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work with IE, this
1229 configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older version of
1233 Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word rendering
1234 engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be configured to use a
1236 <!-- FIXME HB 2009-02-15 -->
1240 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1241 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1243 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1244 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1245 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1246 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1247 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1248 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1249 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1253 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1254 security issues), see
1255 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118</ulink>.
1259 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1260 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1263 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1264 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1265 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1266 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1267 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1268 There is also the possibility of using
1269 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1270 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1271 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1272 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1273 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1274 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1275 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1278 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1279 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1284 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1285 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1287 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1289 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1290 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1291 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1292 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1293 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1294 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1295 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1296 That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1297 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1301 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1302 definition</ulink> for more.
1306 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1307 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1310 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1311 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1312 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1313 to cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
1316 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1317 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1321 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1322 .example.com</screen>
1325 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note that some of these may
1326 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1327 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1328 includes an alias for this situation, called
1329 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1333 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1334 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1336 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1337 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1338 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1340 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
1341 configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
1342 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1346 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1347 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1351 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1352 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1353 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1355 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
1356 Here's one real easy one:
1359 ############################################################
1361 ############################################################
1362 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1363 / # Block *all* URLs
1365 ############################################################
1367 ############################################################
1368 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1371 games.example.com</screen>
1373 This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
1374 then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
1377 Another approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1378 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1379 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1380 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">Trust documentation</ulink>
1384 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1385 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1386 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1387 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1392 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
1393 <title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
1395 Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
1396 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
1397 actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
1398 text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
1399 just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
1400 &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
1401 has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
1405 If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
1406 You can manually undo the many block rules in
1407 <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
1408 <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
1409 blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
1410 concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
1411 can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
1412 following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
1416 # Unblock everybody, everywhere
1417 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1418 / # UN-Block *all* URLs</screen>
1421 Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
1425 # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
1426 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
1427 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
1428 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
1429 <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
1431 / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads</screen>
1434 This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
1435 <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
1436 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
1437 various pop-up blocking features.
1441 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
1442 <title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
1443 <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1445 &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
1446 &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
1447 editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
1448 named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
1449 will of course be helpful.
1452 Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
1453 during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates,
1454 place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main
1455 <filename>config</filename>. For details, have a look at the <ulink
1456 url="../user-manual/config.html#templdir">templdir</ulink> option.
1460 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
1461 <title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
1462 the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1464 There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
1467 Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
1468 this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
1469 might want to build &my-app; from source, and disable various features that are
1470 available as compile-time options. You should
1471 <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
1475 ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force</screen>
1478 This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
1479 &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
1480 current configuration via any connected user's web browser.
1483 Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
1484 <application>Privoxy's</application> main <ulink
1485 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file which
1486 means you don't have to recompile anything.
1492 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1495 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1497 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1499 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1500 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1501 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1503 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1504 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1505 the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
1508 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1509 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1510 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1511 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1512 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1513 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
1514 other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).
1518 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1519 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1521 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1522 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1523 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
1524 filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
1525 the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
1526 have little to no impact on speed.
1529 Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
1530 is often disabled (see <ulink
1531 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
1532 This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
1533 you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
1539 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1540 delays in page requests. What's wrong?</title>
1542 If you use any <literal><ulink
1543 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1544 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1545 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1546 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1547 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1550 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1551 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1552 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1553 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1554 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1555 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1556 big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
1557 anti-virus software).
1560 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1561 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1562 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1563 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1564 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1569 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1570 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1572 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1573 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1574 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1577 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1578 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1579 <quote>web server</quote>.
1582 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1583 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1584 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1585 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1586 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1587 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1588 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1594 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1595 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1597 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1598 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1599 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1603 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1606 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1607 various ways to interact with the developers.
1612 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
1613 they be included in future updates?</title>
1615 Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
1616 <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
1617 significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
1618 problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
1619 <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
1620 has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
1621 are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
1622 schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
1623 inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
1624 unlikely to be included.
1630 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1633 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1634 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1635 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1636 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1637 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1643 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1645 If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
1646 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1647 software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
1648 where to send the responses back.
1651 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1652 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1655 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1656 to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1657 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1658 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1659 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1660 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1663 If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
1664 you should consider chaining <application>Privoxy</application>
1665 with <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>.
1666 The configuration details can be found in
1667 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together
1668 with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1673 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1674 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1676 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
1677 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1678 or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1679 the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
1680 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1683 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1684 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1685 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1686 hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1687 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1688 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1689 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1692 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
1693 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1694 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1695 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1696 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1697 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1700 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1701 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1702 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1703 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1704 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1707 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1708 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1709 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1710 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1711 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1717 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1718 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1720 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1721 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1725 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1726 together with Tor?</title>
1728 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use
1729 <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1730 please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
1731 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1732 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1733 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1736 If it is, refer to <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html">Tor's
1737 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1738 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1739 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1740 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1743 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1744 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1745 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1746 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1747 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1748 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1751 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1752 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1753 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1754 by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1755 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a, to make sure DNS requests are
1756 done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your local network.
1761 Since <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.5, its
1762 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
1763 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1764 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1765 system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
1766 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
1767 and uncomment the line:
1771 # forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1775 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
1776 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1777 reachable through Privoxy:
1781 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1782 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1783 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1787 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1788 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1789 that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
1790 that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
1791 that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
1792 there's no reason to allow it.
1795 If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
1796 network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
1797 that look like this:
1801 # forward localhost/ .
1805 Save the modified configuration file and open
1806 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
1807 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1808 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
1810 <ulink url="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate">Tor
1811 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1814 Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1815 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1816 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1817 application level security, and why you probably don't want to
1818 use it for unencrypted logins.
1822 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1823 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1824 content is being altered?</title>
1827 Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
1828 HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
1829 decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
1830 might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
1831 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1835 The <quote>User-Agent</quote> is sometimes used in this way to identify
1836 the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
1840 Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
1841 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1842 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1843 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1844 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1845 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1846 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1847 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1848 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1849 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1850 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
1851 results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
1852 partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
1853 what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
1854 <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
1859 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1864 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1865 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1866 be required, but by no means the only one.
1872 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1873 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1874 speed up web browsing?</title>
1876 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1877 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> or
1878 <ulink url="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/">Polipo</ulink> for this.
1879 And, yes, before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1880 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1881 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1882 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1883 manual</ulink> for details.
1887 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1888 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1890 Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
1891 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but can't
1892 protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1893 to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1897 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1898 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1899 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1901 It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
1902 their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
1903 <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
1904 and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
1908 But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
1909 down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
1910 banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
1911 cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
1912 Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
1913 troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
1916 The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
1917 requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
1918 empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
1921 So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
1922 can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
1926 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1927 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1929 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1930 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1931 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1932 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1935 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1936 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1937 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1938 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1941 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1942 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1943 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1944 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1945 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1948 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1949 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1950 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1951 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1952 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1953 cookies come by traditional means.
1958 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1959 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1960 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1962 On Unix-like systems, <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1963 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1964 <application>Privoxy</application> listens to requests from <quote>localhost</quote>
1968 The server aspect of <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly
1969 exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1970 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1971 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1972 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1973 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1974 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1975 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1976 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1977 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1978 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1983 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1984 <title>Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
1986 &my-app; doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
1987 but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.
1990 The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
1991 to the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1992 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1995 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1996 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1997 feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
1998 <filename>config</filename> file.
2003 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
2004 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
2005 out of the picture?</title>
2007 No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
2008 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just
2009 doing less of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
2010 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
2011 the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
2016 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
2017 <title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
2019 Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
2020 configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
2021 settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
2026 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
2027 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
2028 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
2030 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
2031 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
2032 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
2033 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
2034 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
2035 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
2036 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
2037 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
2038 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
2041 Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
2042 If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.
2046 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
2047 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
2048 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
2050 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
2051 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
2052 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
2053 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
2054 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
2057 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
2058 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
2059 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
2060 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
2061 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
2062 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
2063 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
2064 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
2065 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
2068 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
2069 to the <quote>Content Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
2070 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
2071 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
2072 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
2073 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
2074 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
2075 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
2076 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
2077 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
2078 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
2081 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
2082 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
2083 did filter this document type.
2086 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the content type as reported
2087 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
2088 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
2089 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
2090 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
2093 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
2094 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
2095 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
2096 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
2097 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
2098 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
2099 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
2100 all to the content is to be avoided.
2103 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
2104 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.
2108 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
2109 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
2110 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
2116 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
2117 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
2119 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
2120 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
2121 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
2122 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
2125 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
2126 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
2127 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
2128 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
2129 duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
2130 It is recommended to remove such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
2131 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
2132 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
2139 ads.galore.example.com
2140 etc.example.com</screen>
2144 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
2145 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
2146 and related issues?</title>
2147 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
2149 <!-- end boilerplate -->
2154 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
2160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
2161 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
2162 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
2165 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
2166 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
2167 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
2168 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
2169 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
2170 activated it by choosing the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the
2171 web-based editor. Please upgrade.
2175 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="valid">
2176 <title>Does Privoxy produce <quote>valid</quote> HTML (or XHTML)?</title>
2179 Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <quote>templates</quote>, and possibly
2180 whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
2181 should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
2182 validated against this or any other standard.
2190 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2192 <sect1 id="trouble">
2193 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
2195 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2196 <title id="refused">I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
2197 <quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
2199 There are several possibilities:
2204 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
2205 that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
2206 Turn on <application>Privoxy's</application> logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
2208 <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
2209 <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
2210 and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
2212 <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
2213 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
2214 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
2217 Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
2218 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
2225 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2226 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2227 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2229 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2230 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
2231 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2232 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2233 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2237 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2238 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
2239 still getting through. How?</title>
2241 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
2242 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
2243 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
2244 will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
2248 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
2249 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
2250 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2251 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
2252 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
2253 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
2254 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
2255 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
2256 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
2257 find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs
2258 (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
2261 Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
2262 requested URL: <literal>www.example.com</literal> (name of site was changed
2263 for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
2264 complexity of what goes into making up this one <quote>page</quote>. There
2265 are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
2266 requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
2267 JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
2268 content is obviously <quote>good</quote> or <quote>bad</quote>, but not all.
2269 Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
2270 that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
2271 our job a little easier. &my-app; has <quote>crunched</quote> (meaning caught
2272 and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
2277 Request: www.example.com/
2278 Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
2279 Request: img.example.com/main.css
2280 Request: img.example.com/sr.js
2281 Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
2282 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
2283 Request: img.example.com/pb.png
2284 Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
2285 Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
2286 Request: img.example.com/p.gif
2287 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
2288 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
2289 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
2290 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
2291 Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
2292 Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
2293 Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
2294 Request: img.example.com/mt.png
2295 Request: img.example.com/mm.png
2296 Request: img.example.com/mb.png
2297 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
2298 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
2299 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
2300 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
2301 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
2302 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
2303 Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
2304 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
2305 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
2306 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
2307 Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
2308 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
2309 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
2314 Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
2315 behave perfectly <quote>normal</quote> (minus some ads, of course).
2320 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
2321 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
2322 What can I do?</title>
2325 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
2326 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
2327 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
2328 (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
2329 <filename>config</filename>),
2330 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
2331 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
2336 If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
2338 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2339 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
2340 actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
2341 files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
2342 for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
2343 to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
2344 complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
2345 Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
2346 might be <emphasis>required</emphasis>.
2347 Now, armed with this information, go to
2349 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2350 and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </para>
2352 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2353 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2354 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2355 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2356 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2357 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2358 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2361 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2362 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2363 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2364 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2365 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2366 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2367 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2370 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2371 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
2372 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
2373 There is also an <ulink
2374 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
2375 with general configuration information and examples.
2378 As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
2379 bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
2385 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2386 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2387 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2388 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2391 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2392 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2393 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2394 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2398 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2399 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2400 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2401 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2402 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2403 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2404 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2405 configured for the kids.
2409 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2410 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2411 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2412 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2413 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2414 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2415 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2416 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2417 you have to store the password under each different user!
2421 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2422 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2423 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2424 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2425 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2426 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2430 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2435 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2436 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2437 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2438 is blocking me.</title>
2440 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2441 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2442 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2443 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2446 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2447 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2448 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2449 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2453 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2454 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
2455 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2456 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2457 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2458 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2459 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
2460 and all will be well again.
2463 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2464 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2469 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2470 <sect2 id="macosxie" renderas="sect3">
2471 <title>In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2472 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2474 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2475 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2476 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2477 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2478 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2479 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2480 IE, it should reflect these values.
2484 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2485 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxuninstall">
2486 <title>In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2487 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2488 empty the trash.</title>
2490 Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
2493 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2494 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2495 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2496 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2497 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2498 confirmation and the administration password.
2501 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2502 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2507 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2508 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosximages">
2509 <title>In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2510 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2511 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2513 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't fully
2514 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2515 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2516 works around the problem.
2520 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2521 <!-- XXX: Is this still relevant now that we have gzip support? -->
2522 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2523 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2524 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2525 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2527 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2528 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2529 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2530 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2531 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2534 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2535 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2536 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2539 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2541 {-prevent-compression}
2542 .example.com</screen>
2544 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2545 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2546 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2547 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2551 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2552 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2555 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2556 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2557 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2558 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2559 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2562 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2563 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2564 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2565 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2568 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>hosts</filename>
2569 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2570 see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
2571 that they resolve both ways.
2574 You should also be able to work around the problem with the
2575 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME">hostname option</ulink>.
2579 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2580 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2581 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2584 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2585 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2586 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2587 your system is actually trying to start a second
2588 <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
2589 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
2590 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
2591 to check your installation and start-up procedures.
2595 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2597 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2600 This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter. You should either
2601 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
2602 recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2603 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2604 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
2608 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2610 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2614 This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
2615 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content type. Binary
2616 files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2617 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
2618 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
2619 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2620 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2624 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2626 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2629 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2630 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2631 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2632 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2633 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2634 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2635 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2636 correct these errors on the fly.
2639 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2643 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2644 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2645 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2648 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2649 notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2653 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2655 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2658 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2659 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2660 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2661 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2662 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2665 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2666 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2667 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2668 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2669 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2673 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2675 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2676 can't Privoxy do this better?
2679 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2680 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2681 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2682 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2683 whatever the outcome was and tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2684 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2685 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2686 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL).
2689 In other cases, if <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained
2690 with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2691 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2692 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2693 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2694 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2698 In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements to help
2699 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2703 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2705 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2706 all CPU. Why is this?
2709 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2710 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2711 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2712 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2713 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2714 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.
2717 Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages,
2718 particularly the <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and
2719 <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal> filters. If you run into this problem
2720 with a recent &my-app; version, please send a problem report.
2724 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2725 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2726 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2728 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2729 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2730 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2731 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2732 at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if you are using a
2733 recent &my-app; version, please report the problem.
2737 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
2738 <title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
2740 It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
2741 send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
2742 then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. When compiled with zlib support
2743 &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
2745 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>.
2748 As of &my-app; 3.0.9, zlib support is enabled in the default builds.
2753 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl-warnings">
2754 <title>On some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content,
2755 the URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken.
2756 What's going on?</title>
2758 Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and &my-app;
2759 is blocking the requests. Privoxy's error messages are delivered
2760 unencrypted and while it's obvious for the browser that the HTTPS
2761 request is already blocked by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated
2765 To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an invalid
2766 local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects aren't
2767 encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow the
2768 redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message instead
2772 To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by
2773 &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this:
2778 {+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
2784 Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
2785 <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> directly (instead of through &my-app;).
2788 To add a proxy exception in <application>Mozilla Firefox</application>
2789 open the <quote>Preferences</quote>, click the <quote>Settings</quote>
2790 button located on the <quote>Network</quote> tab in the <quote>Advanced</quote>
2791 section, and add <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> in the <quote>No Proxy for:</quote>
2797 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="se-linux">
2798 <title>I get selinux error messages. How can I fix this?</title>
2800 Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
2803 The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
2804 with the application they are trying to <quote>secure</quote> and
2805 thus create policies that make no sense.
2808 In <application>Privoxy's</application> case the problem usually
2809 is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
2810 destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the
2811 standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
2812 This isn't a security problem and therefore <application>Privoxy's</application>
2813 default configuration doesn't block these requests.
2816 If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able
2817 to load websites that don't use standard ports), you should
2818 configure Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't
2819 trigger the selinux warnings.
2824 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gentoo-ricers">
2825 <title>I compiled &my-app; with Gentoo's portage and it appears to be very slow. Why?</title>
2827 Probably you unintentionally compiled &my-app; without threading support
2828 in which case requests have to be serialized and only one can be served
2832 Check your <quote>USE</quote> flags and make sure they include
2833 <quote>threads</quote>. If they don't, add the flag and rebuild &my-app;.
2836 If you compiled &my-app; with threading support (on POSIX-based systems),
2837 the <quote>Conditional #defines</quote> section on <ulink
2838 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2839 will list <quote>FEATURE_PTHREAD</quote> as <quote>enabled</quote>.
2846 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2847 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2848 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2850 <!-- end contacting -->
2853 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2854 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2856 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2862 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2863 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2864 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2867 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2868 <sect2><title>License</title>
2869 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2871 <!-- end copyright -->
2873 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2875 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2876 <sect2><title>History</title>
2877 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2883 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2886 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2888 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2890 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2901 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2903 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2904 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2905 Public License as published by the Free Software
2906 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2907 your option) any later version.
2909 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2910 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
2911 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
2912 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
2913 License for more details.
2915 The GNU General Public License should be included with
2916 this file. If not, you can view it at
2917 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2918 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
2919 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
2922 Revision 2.55 2009/02/19 02:20:21 hal9
2923 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
2925 Revision 2.54 2009/02/15 20:47:12 hal9
2928 Revision 2.53 2009/02/15 20:46:13 hal9
2929 Update Outlook HTML rendering engine comments re: Office 2007.
2931 Revision 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil
2932 Finish last paragraph in the selinux entry which
2933 I unintentionally committed with the last commit.
2935 Revision 2.51 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
2936 Declare the code stable.
2938 Revision 2.50 2009/02/11 18:13:36 fabiankeil
2941 Revision 2.49 2009/02/10 16:30:20 fabiankeil
2942 Add a workaround for "unauthenticated content" warnings on HTTPS sites.
2944 Revision 2.48 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
2945 The standard.action file is gone.
2947 Revision 2.47 2008/11/24 18:29:39 fabiankeil
2948 Two changes suggested by Roger Dingledine:
2949 - Use https://www.torproject.org/ in section 4.7, too.
2950 - Replace the Tor wiki URL in section 4.10 with one
2951 with a more useful anchor name.
2953 Revision 2.46 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
2956 Revision 2.45 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
2957 Update version-related entities.
2959 Revision 2.44 2008/06/19 01:41:36 hal9
2960 Add short note about zlib being enabled in 3.0.9
2962 Revision 2.43 2008/06/14 13:21:25 fabiankeil
2963 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
2965 Revision 2.42 2008/06/07 13:11:15 fabiankeil
2966 - Note that the "100% cpu problem" is worth
2967 reporting if it happens with a recent release.
2968 - Mention the hostname option as a workaround for
2969 the "can't get my own hostname" issue.
2970 - The profile formerly known as "Adventuresome"
2971 is called "Advanced" now.
2972 - Some white-space fixes.
2974 Revision 2.41 2008/06/06 15:32:09 fabiankeil
2976 - Don't claim that all the old Junkbuster features remain.
2977 Some of them have been removed or replaced with better ones.
2979 Revision 2.40 2008/02/22 05:54:27 markm68k
2980 updates for mac os x
2982 Revision 2.39 2008/02/03 21:37:41 hal9
2983 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
2985 Revision 2.38 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
2986 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
2988 Revision 2.37 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
2989 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
2991 Revision 2.36 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
2992 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
2995 Revision 2.35 2007/11/19 17:57:59 fabiankeil
2996 A bunch of rewordings, minor updates and fixes.
2998 Revision 2.34 2007/11/19 02:38:11 hal9
2999 Minor revisions and rebuild
3001 Revision 2.33 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
3002 Results of spell check.
3004 Revision 2.32 2007/11/13 03:03:42 hal9
3005 Various changes to reflect new features and revised configuration for the
3008 Revision 2.31 2007/11/05 02:34:53 hal9
3009 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
3011 Revision 2.30 2007/11/04 15:16:40 hal9
3014 Revision 2.29 2007/11/04 15:12:47 hal9
3015 Various minor adjustments.
3017 Revision 2.28 2007/10/27 15:14:16 fabiankeil
3018 Change Tor links to use the new domain torproject.org.
3020 Revision 2.27 2007/10/22 19:47:05 fabiankeil
3021 - Bump version and copyright.
3022 - Adjust Tor section to make it clear that forward exceptions
3023 aren't required and may not even be desired.
3024 - A bunch of other minor rewordings.
3025 - Fix markup problems Roland noticed (hopefully without adding new ones).
3027 Revision 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil
3028 - Don't claim that thousands of people read our code.
3029 - Specify the GPL version and link to GPLv2 instead of v3.
3030 - Note that configuration syntax may change between releases.
3031 - Mention zlib support.
3032 - Answer the "transparent proxy" question properly.
3033 - Add "intercepting proxy" entry.
3035 - Rephrase some other sentences for various reasons.
3037 Revision 2.25 2007/07/18 11:00:34 hal9
3038 Add misc note about valid mark-up in Privoxy.
3040 Revision 2.24 2006/11/14 01:57:46 hal9
3041 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
3044 Revision 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9
3045 Two new FAQs, a rewrite or two, and some touch ups.
3047 Revision 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9
3048 Three new FAQ's re: templates and blocking, and various minor touch-ups/improvements.
3050 Revision 2.21 2006/10/03 14:40:51 fabiankeil
3051 Added links from the Tor faq to the
3052 configuration chapter in the User Manual.
3054 Revision 2.20 2006/09/26 10:12:37 fabiankeil
3057 Revision 2.19 2006/09/22 10:54:32 hal9
3058 Change references to 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 and minor adjustments.
3060 Revision 2.18 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
3061 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
3062 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
3064 Revision 2.17 2006/09/17 14:56:32 hal9
3065 This includes yet several more new FAQs, some improved wording, enhanced
3066 mark-up, various hyper links to wikipedia to explain key terminology to the
3067 uninitiated, etc. This is ready for release IMO pending final tagging of cvs
3068 and Privoxy version stamping.
3070 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
3073 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
3074 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
3075 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
3077 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
3078 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
3080 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
3081 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
3082 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
3084 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
3085 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
3086 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
3087 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
3089 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
3090 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
3091 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
3093 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
3094 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
3096 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
3097 Added Mac OS X Panther problem
3099 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
3100 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
3102 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
3103 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
3104 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
3105 troubleshooting section.
3107 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
3108 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
3110 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
3111 More on the filter/source code problem.
3113 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
3114 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
3116 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
3117 Sorry, found another copyright date.
3119 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
3120 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
3122 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
3125 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
3126 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
3128 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
3131 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
3132 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
3134 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
3135 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
3137 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
3138 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
3140 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
3141 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
3143 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
3144 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
3147 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
3148 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
3150 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
3151 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
3153 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
3154 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
3156 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
3157 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
3158 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
3160 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
3161 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
3163 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
3164 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
3166 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
3167 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
3168 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
3169 (especially filtering).
3171 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
3172 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
3174 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
3177 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
3178 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
3180 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
3181 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
3183 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
3184 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one Mac OS X Q/A to troubleshooting section.
3186 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
3187 Added missing close tag
3189 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
3190 Updated Mac OS X uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
3192 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
3193 Style police: Fixed formatting details
3195 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
3196 Made the Mac OS X removal commands far less dangerous
3198 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
3199 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OS X deinstallation; moved this item to install section
3201 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
3202 Add FAQ item for MSIE on Mac OS X HTTP proxy confusion
3204 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
3205 Added FAQ item for Mac OS X uninstall woes
3207 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
3208 Fix typo: 'schould'.
3210 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
3211 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
3212 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
3214 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
3215 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
3217 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
3218 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
3220 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
3221 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
3223 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
3224 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
3226 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
3227 Various minor changes and edits.
3229 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
3230 Proofread & added more links into u-m
3232 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
3233 Fix ulink -> link markup.
3235 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
3236 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
3237 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
3238 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
3240 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
3241 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
3243 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
3246 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
3247 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
3249 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
3250 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
3252 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
3253 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
3255 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
3256 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
3257 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
3260 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
3261 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
3263 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
3264 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
3266 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
3269 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
3272 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
3275 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
3276 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
3278 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
3279 Touch up on name change.
3281 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
3282 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
3284 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
3285 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
3287 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
3288 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
3289 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
3290 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
3291 eventually be set by Makefile.
3292 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
3294 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
3295 Fixed several typos.
3297 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
3298 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
3300 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
3301 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
3302 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
3304 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
3305 -Rework of supported Q/A.
3306 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
3308 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
3309 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
3311 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
3312 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
3314 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
3317 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
3318 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
3320 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
3321 Touch ups for name change.
3323 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
3324 we have a new homepage!
3326 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
3327 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
3329 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
3330 Moved section, and touch ups.
3332 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
3333 New section related to name change.
3335 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
3336 we are too lazy to make a block-built
3337 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
3339 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
3340 name change related issue.
3342 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
3345 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
3346 name change. changed filenames.
3348 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
3351 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
3352 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
3353 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
3354 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
3355 comments and remarks to history untouched.
3357 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
3360 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
3363 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
3366 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
3367 A few more additions.
3369 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
3370 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
3372 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
3373 A little more added ...
3375 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
3376 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
3378 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
3381 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
3384 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
3385 correct feedback channels
3387 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
3388 more info on not hiding ip address
3390 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
3391 added default config section
3393 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
3396 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
3397 Committing changes by Stefan
3399 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
3400 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
3402 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
3403 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
3404 will work - no other changes are needed.
3406 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
3407 upload process established. run make webserver and
3408 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
3409 are now linked correctly.
3411 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
3412 merged standards into developer manual
3414 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
3415 source files for junkbuster documentation
3417 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
3418 first proposal of a structure.
3420 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
3421 docs should have an author.
3423 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
3424 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.